The present invention relates to personal video recorders.
A personal video recorder (“PVR”) also called a digital video recorder, has become a popular tool allowing a user to record television broadcasts. A user does not have to be present at the time of broadcast, but instead can view a desired program at a time of his or her choosing.
Conventional PVR's can specify the recording of a program whenever it is scheduled to be broadcast as well as specify how long, or how many, programs to retain in storage. For example, a user can specify that a particular news program be recorded, on a particular channel, at 6:00 p.m. nightly. The program can be retained for a specific period of time, for example, only until the next recording or otherwise retained for some other arbitrary period of time. The program can also be retained until deletion is necessary, for example, to recover storage space for recording other programming.
One type of PVR is TiVo, which allows users to record programming based on several criteria such as program title, type, actor/actress, director, or keyword. Typically, TiVo uses periodically downloaded program listing information to search for programming that matches the user's criteria. Program listing information typically includes the title, time, and a brief synopsis of the program. TiVo typically will record the program if a program listing matches the user's recording criteria.